ABSTRACT
Competing narratives between communities can and do cause mass violence of great and abiding horror. A classic example is the Srebrenica genocide in which Serbs “saw fourteenth-century Ottomans” when they engaged in the mass slaughter of twentieth-century Bosnian Muslims. At a deep level, the Serbian perpetrators were engaging in vengeful retribution for the humiliating loss of the Serbian kingdom 500 years earlier. One scholar treating the dangers associated with historical narrative and communal trauma is Dr Vamık Volkan, who showed how national trauma can be eternalized and preserved for generations, only to erupt into mass violence when conditions are ripe. This chapter treats four aspects of Volkan’s research:
The ways in which communal trauma can encourage the formulation of highly problematic communal narratives.
The ways in which communal trauma is preserved and perpetuated in the memory of victimized communities through commemorative practice.
The ways in which the memory of trauma can then be activated to motivate mass violence against innocent victims.
Ways in which unresolved anxiety and tension brought about by communal trauma can be reduced and even relieved through constructive processes that thwart the release of violence.
